Keep On Grinding: The Neccessity of Perseverance in the Pursuit of Whitetails

It was a difficult moment. The kind, that while in the big picture seems nominal, feels monumental in the present. My resolve was about to crumble. My faith had eroded. My dreams were quickly fading. This wasn’t going to happen…I was going to fail.

It was my 12th day in a row, hunting from dawn til dusk almost each day. And as had been the story all season, another close encounter had come up just short. This wasn’t going to happen… I was going to fail.

Hunting deer shouldn’t seem so life and death, but for me at that point in time, it felt that way. I quit my day job this past fall to pursue my entrepreneurial endeavors with Wired To Hunt, and being a whitetail hunting writer requires you kill whitetails. It’s kind of an important part of the gig. Unfortunately, you’d think I had missed the memo. I hadn’t killed anything this year. Not a thing. Every time it seemed I would close the deal on one of the bucks I was chasing, something would go wrong. It just hadn’t come together. And after hundreds of hours of work and preparation in the off-season and about 30 unsuccessful hunts to that point, I had reached the end of my rope. Me? A professional hunting writer? I can’t do this. Who was I kidding?

This wasn’t going to happen… I was going to fail.

Or was I?

Yes, I was nearing the end of my rope. But as they say, when you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. And so I did. I held on.

And so should you.

Hunting Is A Challenge

“Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have the strength.” – Theodore Roosevelt

I love hunting. And I enjoy it, so incredibly much. There are so many wonderful things about hunting deer, but we’re not talking about that side of the hunt today. If you take hunting mature whitetails seriously, you know that it’s not always rainbows and butterflies. Plans fall apart. Opportunities slip through our grasp. Hard work doesn’t always pay off the way we think it should.

The reality of hunting mature whitetails is that it’s a damn hard thing to do.

And more times than not we’ll be made out to look like fools, clutching blindly at our so called expertise, wondering aloud what in the world went wrong. It happens far more often than I’m sure any of us care to admit.

If that’s not tough enough, the pure act of enduring the hunt itself is enough to discourage many a grown man from even stepping outside their door. 3:30 AM wakeup calls for days on end, double digit hours in a tree, and sometimes endless monotony. Frigid temperatures that could freeze a phrase on the tip of your tongue, winds that howl like banshees, biting sleet, blinding snow. If you’re serious about hunting mature whitetails, you’ll see all of this and more. And I don’t care what kind of tough guy or gal you are, it’s not always fun.

Hunting mature whitetails is a challenge. It’s a marathon. It’s a struggle.

But if you’re serious about it, you need to accept that challenge. You need to run that race. You need live through that struggle. One step at a time, one hurdle after another, you need to keep at it. Even when you don’t have the strength, you need to keep … on…grinding.

Keep On Grinding

“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

In that moment mentioned above, I had reached a low point. An assumed slam dunk had instead turned into a blocked shot, a steal and a score on the other end. I had reached the end of my rope. But I decided then, in that next moment, that I would not fail. I could not fail. I would hold on. I would keep at it. I would keep on grinding.

For if anyone, me or you, is to succeed in this crazy game we call hunting mature whitetails, we will need to grind it out.

We will need to live through those days on stand where nothing shows. We’ll need to learn from those hunts when our plans falls apart. We’ll need to cope with the jealously we try so hard to mask when our friends score on the kind of bucks we dream of. We’ll need to tough it out through the early mornings, the long days, the miserable weather, and the mental minefield that is a whitetail season.

The only sure thing about hunting mature whitetails is that we’ll encounter our fair share of failures. But this reality then begs the question, will you rise up when you fail?

When the going gets tough. When your hope is fading. When you’re just fed up, disgusted, and depressed with this damn deer hunting obsession. Will you throw in the towel? Will you give in to your doubts?

Or … will you rise?

I hope and I pray that you will. I hope that in those toughest of times, you will take a moment, breathe in that crisp fresh air, and appreciate your opportunity. You have an opportunity to rise up. And you will. You will keep at it. You will keep on grinding.

When you reach the end of your rope, you just tie that knot, and hold on.

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Mark, Great article and great timing! we are sharing the same year in seperate locations!

Mark Kenyon

Thanks Al! I hope you can keep at it, and that the work pays off!

Daniel

Awesome article! Failure is part of deer hunting. It is the reason its called deer hunting and not deer killing. I am right there too! Nothing has seemed to go right this year. Hopefully we can get it turned around here soon. Best of luck!

Hunter

The same has happened with me. First hunting trip: got close, but got busted. Second trip: got a shot with my muzzleloader, powder malfunctioned and missed. I’ve got one more hunt ahead of me this year. I’ve got to keep pushing on. I don’t care if it’s a bruiser or a doe I’m dropping something that hunt. No excuses for me anymore.

Nate Markway

It is exactly what you write about that makes the moment of killing a mature buck so over the top and addicting. Some of my best buck memories are due to the situation or time in which I succeeded. Whether it is at 12:30 in the afternoon on an all day sit that you succeed or a 2 degree afternoon in January when everyone else is on their couch. That’s what keeps me coming back. I’m hooked, I couldn’t quit if I wanted to. Love your articles

Scott Limer

This is what my cousin calls “The Speech.” I got it on my WY antelop hunt last year and I’ve heard him give it on more than one occasion for motivation. He knows it by heart, it came from his HS football coach in Georgia (so he says, LOL):

IF YOU THINK YOU’RE BEAT, YOU ARE.
If you think you dare not, you won’t.
If you’d like to win but don’t think you can,
It’s almost a cinch you won’t.
Think big and your deeds will grow.
Think small and you’ll fall behind.
Success begins with a fellows will,
It’s all in the state of the mind.
For many a battle is lost,
Before even a blow is thrown.
A many a game is over,
Before even the games begun.
Life battles don’t always go
To the stronger and faster man
But sooner or later the man that wins
Is the fellow that thinks he can!

You have to yell the last two lines to get the full effect!

Mark Kenyon

Thanks guys!

Mark Kenyon

Awesome Speech Scott!

Bill

See I’m on the other side of that “positive” fence. I’m not convinced hanging on always works. There are times when it’s best to just say hey, it’s not in the cards. Why do I say that? During archery season, I blew a shot at a deer I’ve chased for 3 years. He finally showed, when I pull a trick that I knew would work, and it did. I blew the shot at 30 yards. A week later I went to Ohio on a week long DIY, and when I had a mid 130’s 10 at 18 yards, I hit a branch and came up empty. Only to come home and 3 weeks later, wound a nice 6 on the last day of archery. Hit him a bit far forward, and got shoulder blades, followed blood for hundreds of yards to the swamp. Looked for 2 days, nothing… Mix in a 3 day rifle trip to KY where I didn’t see a shooter, then back home where I’ve only seen deer one night, in the last month… and I’m at work typing this instead of being out for the opening day of our shotgun week.
After all the clubs drive the woods for 6 days straight, finding a good state woods buck that isn’t nocturnal, is even more difficult. Point is, I normally hunt 6-7 days a week, morning and night on weekends, and every night after work. I’ve stayed after it, I fought through the tough times, and I tried to make something happen and “hang on”. Tough pill to swallow..but ya gotta know when to fold em